South Carolina leaders’ longstanding feud with the labor union representing dockworkers at state-owned ports took a surprising political turn Tuesday when President-elect Donald Trump sided with union officials on a key issue – further automation at U.S. port facilities.
“Just finished a meeting with the International Longshoremen’s Association and its President, Harold Daggett, and Executive VP, Dennis Daggett,” Trump wrote Dec. 12 in a social media post. “There has been a lot of discussion having to do with ‘automation’ on United States docks. I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it. The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”
Trump’s union-friendly comments came after a year of mounting political tensions between state officials and the ILA.
“We will fight all the way to the gates of hell,” McMaster said of labor unions in his January State of the State address, after specifically discussing state port disputes with the ILA. “And we will win.”
In an angry video response, ILA President Harold Daggett called McMaster “a disgrace.”
Later that same month, the state lost a major legal battle with the union when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear South Carolina’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that okayed the use of ILA members, rather than state employees, in certain port jobs.
Tensions peaked in October when McMaster and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., implored President Joe Biden to order ILA members back to work after a strike briefly shut down East Coast port facilities, including the state’s largest port in Charleston. Shortly thereafter, ILA officials agreed to voluntarily suspend the strike in return for an agreement on higher pay and further negotiations on the issue of automation.
After this week’s meeting at Mar-A-Lago, Daggett expressed gratitude for Trump’s backing on the issue.
“I am so grateful to President Donald Trump for his courageous support for American ILA longshore workers,” Daggett said. “He totally understands the threat that automation and semi-automation has in destroying jobs and families.”
Negotiations are ongoing between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, the consortium representing carriers and port associations. In December, the union warned it will strike again if all outstanding issues, including automation, aren’t settled in a new master contract by Jan. 15, 2025.
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